


The Most Important Thing

by LadyAnneNeville



Series: Tony learns how to Parent Peter [5]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-27 01:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15675492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAnneNeville/pseuds/LadyAnneNeville
Summary: Peter has a panic attack and for once it's not really about his vigilateism. Tony helps. No need to read the other stories in the series to understand. Response to a prompt on tumblr





	The Most Important Thing

**Author's Note:**

> This story stands completely alone, however in terms of understanding some of the terminology Tony and Peter use to refer to each other, it is set in a slightly alternate universe, where Peter is still living with and looked after by May, but Tony has made him his heir and for legal reasons has adopted Peter. This is established in my story An Unexpected Visit if you are interested in reading it.

It was nearly the end of term, Christmas was just around the corner. Unfortunately, the end of term comes with end of term tests, and even for a good student like Peter; at a school as selective as Midtown School of Science and Technology, end of terms exams were stressful.

Perhaps even more so for a good student like Peter, because continuing to be a good student was becoming harder and harder every day. One of the big issues was that Peter’s main priority wasn’t school, it was being Spider-Man and helping people. Luckily for Peter, he was only 16, so while he wasn’t thinking about the long term consequences of not prioritizing school, Aunt May and Tony did. He had a specific number of hours he was allowed to be Spider-Man, and a less specific number of hours he was allowed to mess around in the lab with Tony. Both of these were contingent on him continuing to achieve the grades that he has been getting before the Spider-bite. For Peter this meant straight A’s and the further he got in school the harder this was to achieve.

He was now a third of the way through his Junior year, and with Spider-Man, Labtime/internship, Clarinet (Tony had heard him play once which inspired a ‘music is important’ moment and had compromised by not making him go back to band but getting him lessons), Decathlon (he had such a relatively small social life and this was one of his few opportunities to hang out with Ned and MJ), and trying to maintain straight A’s in all his subjects when he was in 6 AP classes was nearly impossible.

He hadn’t been sleeping as well and while his nightmares used to consist of him being trapped under collapsed buildings or being dropped from 2000 feet in the air by the vulture, more and more often now they consisted of him oversleeping and missing an exam, or failing all his subjects, or no longer being allowed to be Spider-Man and being blamed by families of people who had been slain on the streets of Queens just like Uncle Ben had because Spider-Man wasn’t there to stop it.

But right now, he wasn’t being Spider-Man and in deference to his upcoming tests and Tony’s stressed out state over the upcoming release of the latest StarkPad, he hadn’t been the major developer on this one, instead leaving it mainly to his R&D department while he sorted out initial development on Stark Industries first foray into medical technologies that would help paraplegics and amputees regain their independence. That along with negotiating good will project to insert clean energy factories in places like India and China to help combat climate change, Tony Stark had been busy. Unfortunately as talented as Stark Industries R&D department were, they just weren’t on a level with Tony Stark and this close to the release, and asked him to sort out the remaining bugs. 

Had they been Google, or Microsoft, or Acer, or Lenovo or even Apple, releasing the model with the few remaining bugs wouldn’t have been an issue, they were relatively minor after all, but Stark Industries had a reputation for releasing technology that was extensively tested, durable and worked exactly as advertised. It was part of the reason they were able to charge such high prices for their products, it was part of the reason they had been the weapons supplier of choice for so many countries, it was part of the reason that the company hadn’t just crashed and burned after 2008. Stark Technology was analyzed to the nth degree and Stark Industries didn’t do low end products. Over 1000 reviews of the new product would appear within hours of the release examining every aspect of the new product and if it was to be released with bugs, then that reputation would be shot.

Tony had therefore spent the last week untangling the not shoddy, but flawed coding that defined the new operating system for the tablet and rewriting it in his personal style, but designed to look as much like the original coding but without the bugs. It was intricate and time-consuming work and so it had been with a twinge of guilt and a firm justification in the form of Peter’s upcoming tests that he had sent the teen from the lab to do his homework in the living room. Pepper would be home within the hour and she was always pleased to see Peter, and would be pleased to help him out with any studying help, even if she would be displeased with Tony leaving him to fend for himself.

Peter in the living room had been studying for hours and felt like crying. It was the stupidest thing, he was good at Spanish. He didn’t perhaps have the natural talent with the language that he did with science and Math, but he worked hard, could speak it well and got great grades. But none of it was making sense. He knew his exam would consist of three parts, a listening exam, a reading exam, both of which were comprehension based, and then a short essay, just three hundred words, but in Spanish with an argument.

This term they had been doing politics and he had been enjoying it. He was flicking through study cards with vocab words on them and he knew this word. He was certain that he knew what de izquierda meant. He was certain he had used it in class just yesterday. Yes he could flip his (admittedly low tech, but writing stuff out by hand helped him remember) flashcards over and see the answer but that wasn’t good enough. He had to remember. If he couldn’t remember this one stupid word, whose meaning escaped him but he knew full well that it was bound to turn up, then he would fail, and if he failed then he wouldn’t be allowed to be Spider-Man anymore, and his GPA might dip meaning he would lose his scholarship, and people who lived near him, innocent, ordinary people like Mr Delmar or the nice lady at the bank who cashes his cheques for him might end up hurt or grief stricken because he couldn’t be Spider-Man anymore and couldn’t protect them. And he couldn’t just keep being Spider-Man behind Tony and May’s backs again, not like last time, because he was a stupid, selfish, idiot child who put his silly want to be cared about by Tony and May above the safety of thousands of citizens of Queens. 

He couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t breathe.

God his chest hurt so much. Maybe it was all irrelevant because he was going to die here and now it Tony’s living room, and dammit why did he have to be so ungrateful as to die in the living room of the man who had done so much for him.

 

“Boss.”

“FRIDAY I said not to interrupt, this is important I only have two more days to sort this.” Tony growled. He always regretted it when he was short with his baby girl, but he was stressed.

“Boss, Peter appears to be having a severe panic attack in the living room.” All the blood drained from Tony’s face as he swore viciously and set off for the elevator at a run. Peter was too young to be dealing with panic attacks.

The scene in the living room was enough to shatter Tony’s remaining composure, but he knew he had to hold it together for Peter, him falling apart as well wouldn’t do anything at all to help Peter. 

Peter was curled up in a ball on the floor next to the sofa, notes scattered around him where he fell, a small stack of flashcards clutched so tightly in both hands that they were crumpled beyond recognition, his eyes were wide and tears were streaming down his face as incoherent gasps escaped his open mouth.

Tony hesitated barely a second before striding across the open space towards his son.

“Peter. Peter. You need to take deep breaths.” He said, deliberately keeping his voice calm and confident but Peter didn’t even seem to register what Tony had said. This wasn’t working. He could hold Peter, get him to calm his breathing by feeling Tony’s breaths but if Peter was startled and lashed out, then Tony could be seriously hurt and the last thing Tony wanted was for Peter to have to deal with guilt on top of everything else, even if it was guilt he shouldn’t feel.

“Peter, I’m going to hold you, okay?” 

No response still but at least he had given the boy some warning. Hopefully that would be enough for him not to startle. 

Tony gently eased himself down next to Peter, and then in a swift, confident movement, swept the boy so he was sat between his knees, his tense back against Tony’s chest.

“Peter. I know it’s scary, but I need you to breathe with me. I know it feels like you’re dying but this will pass and whatever’s caused this, we’ll sort it out, I promise but for now you just need to breathe. Breathe with me, breath in… and hold it… and breathe out slowly. Breathe in… and hold it… and breathe out slowly.”

Tony kept talking with Peter, keeping his voice calm and even. Eventually Peter began to breathe with Tony, the tears slowed and his breathing calmed down to the normal rate. He looked shaken, horrified and exhausted. 

“Need some water?” Tony offered, figuring the boy would need a moment to gather himself. Peter nodded and Tony, slipped up, leaning a still shaky Peter against the side of the couch and went to get a glass of water. He took his time, there was a kitchen in the open plan living space, he wasn’t quite willing to leave the room but he knew Peter needed a semblance of privacy. When he returned, Peter had gathered the fallen papers into a couple of scruffy piles and was sitting on the sofa looking small and vulnerable. 

Tony handed Peter the water, then sat next to him, slinging an arm over the boy’s shoulders. He waited until Peter had finished the water, before leaning back against the cushions, bringing Peter with him, and gently ruffling Peter’s hair as the Peter’s head was pillowed on his shoulder.

“So wanna talk about it.” Tony said.

“Any chance you’re gonna take no for an answer.” Peter’s voice was still slightly hoarse from all the crying he had done.

“Come on kid, you know me better than that.” Tony said, he was willing to be patient, but he wasn’t going to let Peter get away with not talking about it.

“It’s just stupid stuff.” Peter mumbled.

“Nothing that causes a panic attack that severe is stupid, even if it looks small from the outside. Trust me kid, I know. There’s no judgement here, just a friendly ear.”

Peter took a deep breath, and then explained everything to Tony. It took a long time. It was easier somehow, leaning against Tony’s shoulder, not making eye contact, the only assurance that Tony was still listening was the variation of pressure on his shoulder as Tony’s hand slightly clenched and unclenched.

When he was finished, Tony gently sat him up and then enfolded him into a hug. It was such a safe hug that Peter almost felt like crying again, but he controlled himself just in time.

The hug ended and Tony looked him straight in the eye.

“Okay Peter, here is where you listen. One thing I can absolutely promise is that when May and I decided you needed to maintain your grades, neither of us meant to put this much pressure. You feeling like this is the last thing we wanted, and I think all three of us need to have a conversation where we re-examine the rules put in place and make sure we have something that works for you. You shouldn’t be sacrificing time hanging out with Ned and MJ so you can kill yourself trying to get good grades. Understand?”

Peter nodded.

“Good. So, you need to sleep. Panic attacks are exhausting, and I’m making an executive decision to keep you home from school tomorrow, no arguments. No school, no Spider-Man, just staying home and a chat where we work out where we go from here. Your health, and your happiness is more important than anything else, and we need to sort it out, without getting you even more school in the way.”

Peter nodded again.

“Okay kid, you’re literally trembling with exhaustion, lie down and go to sleep.” Tony gently manhandles the still slightly out of it Peter until he’s lying flat on the couch and gently removed the half-asleep teen’s shoes.

“And Peter?” He said gently as he pulled the soft throw from the back of the couch to cover him. Peter mumbled something incomprehensible in reply. “de izquierda means the political left in Spanish.” A sleepy smile covered Peter’s face.

“Thanks Dad.” He said. Tony felt a warm intense emotion spread from his chest.

“Anytime Kid.”


End file.
